Hasta La Gadget!

Man, the people who got their hands on the Oculus Rift are really desperate for something to play on their new toy. We already saw someone make a Virtual Boy emulator for the Rift, and now here’s an experience for head-mounted display about not having your head mounted on your neck anymore.

The program is called Disunion. I can’t really call it a game, because it doesn’t seem to accept any input from the “player.” It’s a guillotine simulator and all you can do is wait and look around. I think that pretty much sums up the options left to the victim in such an event.

Disunion was made by Erkki Trummal, André Berlemont and Morten Brunbjerg during the Exile Game Jam. You can download a Windows build of Disunion on Unicorn7. I wonder if it lets you look at your body after you’ve been decapitated. At that point you’ll have a first- and third-person perspective at the same time.

[via Kotaku]

Scantrons are a bit out of date, but numerous schools are still using them to grade multiple choice tests. However, a new technology is in the works at Xerox that will essentially turn photocopiers into paper-grading machines that can even recognize handwriting to distinguish both math formulas, as well as long-form essays.

The system is called Ignite, and it would allow teachers to send pages of printed tests with handwritten answers into these new machines, where it would then spit out the graded versions on the other side. On top of that, the machines can be programmed to keep track of which students do poorly on which questions, and relay these findings back to the teacher.

With this new technology, Xerox hopes to obviously save time for teachers and allow them to focus more on other tasks that machines simply aren’t able to accomplish. Ignite needs some user input first before it can get going with its automated process, however. Teachers have to enter in the test and an answer key, as well as tell the software what the questions are about in the first place.

The new technology has already been involved in real-world testing in New York, and it seems users are impressed so far with the results. Xerox plans to have Ignite ready in time for when school starts back up later this year in the fall. No pricing details have been announced yet.

[via Democrat and Chronicle]

Xerox photocopiers will soon grade papers with new tech is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Although this isn’t necessarily my regular fare (if indeed I can be
said to have anything of the sort), I’d argue that it’s close enough to
video games that it qualifies for this blog. After all, a great many
video games could very well be said to owe their roots to table-top
roleplaying; D&D is considered the grandfather of all RPGs by many.
But we’re getting a touch off track, dear readers. Today, I’d like to discuss an innovative new tool known as Roll 20. 

Pelican Imaging, inventor of array camera technology for mobile devices,  recently announced a $20M investment by cellphone manufacturer Nokia. A representative of Nokia Growth Partners noted, "Pelican Imaging’s computational camera solutions are at the cutting edge of mobile camera technologies. We believe they’re positioned to lead the next wave in video and image capture; they’re a great addition to our portfolio of innovators in the imaging space." If this is any indication, we may see Lytro-style camera technology on smartphones in the very near future.

One of the worst things about using a wireless modem on the go to connect your computer to the Internet is that it’s a pain in the butt to know how much data you’ve used. A data overage can cost you hundreds of dollars or more, so most people will keep a close eye on exactly how much data they are using. With your typical wireless modem, that means you have to go to your wireless carrier’s website, or dig into the device’s settings to search out the report that will tell you how much data you’ve used so far for any given month.

However, AT&T has unveiled a clever new USB wireless modem that features an integrated LCD screen that can solve this problem.

Made by Sierra Wireless, the new wireless modem is called the Beam. The coolest thing about it is that its integrated display can do is show you exactly how much data you’ve used at a glance. The display also shows several other helpful bits of information including such as network type and signal strength indicator.

The wireless modem offers 4G LTE connectivity, and can also act as a storage device supporting memory cards up to 32 GB of capacity. The Beam will be available on May 10 for just $19.99(USD) – with a two-year contract, of course.